Do you have an ambassador who's totally gaga over your product? Did you just host an event that left you with tons of pictures to share? Looking for a way to increase Facebook engagement? If you answered yes to at least one of these questions, Facebook has a solution for you.

Facebook just introduced shared albums which allows you to invite up to 50 users to collaborate on a photo album. Shared albums will be useful for group events like trips, meetings, weddings and parties. But beyond the personal use of these shared albums, they can be very useful for small businesses to increase engagement within their network and give more power to their trusted fans.

I've seen a few examples of businesses handing over their social media accounts to an active fan for the day, or week, or even the month. Mercedes, as an example, gave some bloggers access to post pictures to the Mercedes Instagram account. Sweden gave a resident access to the "Sweden" Twitter account. The list goes on and on. However, this kind of thing has never been done on Facebook before, and it could have big benefits for small businesses.

While this feature is currently only available for personal albums, I'm imagining a Facebook in which this is being rolled out to Fan Pages as well. In the meantime, here is how you can use it as a business—you being a business person—and how it can increase Facebook engagement.

A Few Ways To Use It As A Small Business

Anyone who's in business for themselves can take advantage of this feature immediately. If you're an event planner, you can start an album before the event. Share this event album with your network and the invited guest list, and then encourage them to take pictures for your shared album. This will populate your event album with photos from a score of different people, various and sundry, while connecting you and them simultaneously. It'll also open you up to their network.

If you're a stylist, you can create an album with your best looks. Invite your top of the line clients to join in on the fun. This will increase the exposure you get to your client's network while creating a portfolio on your own page.

The list's possibilities are infinite. The key here is to be creative and think of this as a collaboration tool.

Remember, this album can be shared on your Fan Page, so don't think it's a wash just yet. You can create your own shared album, invite your clients to join in and share it right there on your page.

I see this feature also being used for contests in the future. "Upload a favorite image of you and our product to this group album. The photo with the most likes will win a prize." There's a ton of engagement for you. 🙂

How It Increases Facebook Engagement

The key here is collaboration and content curation. By collaborating with others on a single album (or a board on Pinterest), you're likely to build a bond with the people on the other side, the other contributors. As more people get involved, this shared experience helps shape your fans and your business community.

Another way this increases engagement is by giving your album exposure to various people's networks. When one person uploads a photo to your album, their network sees that image, bringing more eyeballs to your business. Imagine the viral, ripple effect this could have with 50 active and engaged fans uploading images to your album!

Make sure the album title is branded with your business name, specifically, and set a link inside the description. You want to make sure those new eyeballs know exactly where this album is coming from.

Stephanie Frasco

Stephanie Frasco, VP Social Media Marketing, started helping businesses get results with social networks before Twitter even existed! Stephanie has worked directly with high profile clients like Oprah, Atlantic Records, Dashlane, The International Culinary Center, & many more. She specializes in helping business owners and marketers find massive ROI by developing targeted social campaigns focused on *engagement strategies* that work!

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[…] thing that every business, small, medium or large, struggles with is finding engaging content to post to their fan pages. While marketing is largely a study in what works for your own business, […]